Cure all: the story of Niagara prosciutto maker Mario Pingue appears in the Star (Photo by stu_spivack)

• Every Ontario gourmand who knows prosciutto from pancetta has heard of Niagara meat maestro Mario Pingue. Now the Star tells his whole story, from his cash-strapped early days to his meat’s near-omnipresence at Toronto restaurants. [Toronto Star]

• Home chefs shamed by clouds of flying insects in their kitchens will be relieved to know they’re not alone. Fruit flies have descended on Toronto this summer, and pest-control experts are blaming the garbage strike. Since city workers are being blamed for everything, can we pin the rainy summer on them, too? [Globe and Mail]

• Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter was recently spied checking out the stir-fry station at the Condé Nast cafeteria, and employees are freaking out. Does this mean the end is nigh for the once-luxe media company? [Observer]

• The hit AMC series Mad Men always seems to nail its period cocktails, and now we know why: the show retains an on-set mixologist whose job it is to whip up the perfect old-fashioned (always virgin, though; a stumbling Don Draper is a useless Don Draper). [New York Times]

• As the folks at Pizzeria Libretto can attest, recessions are a pizza-crazy time. One Harvard graduate student decided to cut out the middleman and build his own wood-fired oven. The Boston Globe talks to him and reveals how to build a clay pizza oven. [Boston Globe]